2024 Schedule

[henjet]

Don't be so quick to get rid of older season ticket holders, the ones that are left are still coming to the games even after all the stupid moves by ud like there parking prices, playing a game down at del state (one of the dumbest things ever done) terrible announcing, music after every play, bad home schedule, they better do everything to keep them.

[Hengrad07]

CUSA should schedule Liberty in Newark in ‘25 if they were smart!

[hensfan40yrs]

so true, us old farts were apart of the consistant 23,000 sellouts the Hens enjoyed for years.

[BlueHenBobby]

I am one of those "old" STH and contributors. I understand the need to move up. FCS seems to be a sinking ship and the quality of the CAA is diminishing. Attendance is stagnating. However I have yet to decide whether or not to continue buying ST's and contributing. Perhaps it is time for the next generation's to step in. If the attitude is "so what if the older ST holders go away", then perhaps the UD can go away. Here's the issues I have with continuing to be a STH and contributor at 70 years of age. The next 3 years are going to be questionable at best. 2024 will be limbo with a max of 6 home games (or what the regular schedule provides for). No additional games. 2025 will be the first year of CUSA. That is not a lot of time to upgrade the roster to come into the league as competitive. JMU entered FBS at the top of FCS with a roster and proven coaching staff capable of coming in competitive. UD has shown some progress in the last two seasons but a view of FCS playoffs and CUSA games clearly showed how far the UD is from Prime Time. That first year is likely to be rough with no additional games. 2026 may be better, but not likely to involve CUSA playoffs or a "something or other" bowl game somewhere remote to this area. Then there are week night games in October. I'm retired but still have a weekday heavy schedule. That would also likely rule out bringing guests and family to those games. To say the least I am not enamored with that. When a bowl game comes along it will be one of the many lesser, mostly downright insignificant bowl games not worth spending the travel money on. As for the future beyond CUSA, I surely don't see UD making FBS playoffs in my lifetime. Yes, the world must change for the program to be viable in the future, but if I don't really care for what comes with those changes then why should I pay for them.

[mpwerrell]

I am one of those "old" STH and contributors. I understand the need to move up. FCS seems to be a sinking ship and the quality of the CAA is diminishing. Attendance is stagnating. However I have yet to decide whether or not to continue buying ST's and contributing. Perhaps it is time for the next generation's to step in. If the attitude is "so what if the older ST holders go away", then perhaps the UD can go away. Here's the issues I have with continuing to be a STH and contributor at 70 years of age. The next 3 years are going to be questionable at best. 2024 will be limbo with a max of 6 home games (or what the regular schedule provides for). No additional games. 2025 will be the first year of CUSA. That is not a lot of time to upgrade the roster to come into the league as competitive. JMU entered FBS at the top of FCS with a roster and proven coaching staff capable of coming in competitive. UD has shown some progress in the last two seasons but a view of FCS playoffs and CUSA games clearly showed how far the UD is from Prime Time. That first year is likely to be rough with no additional games. 2026 may be better, but not likely to involve CUSA playoffs or a "something or other" bowl game somewhere remote to this area. Then there are week night games in October. I'm retired but still have a weekday heavy schedule. That would also likely rule out bringing guests and family to those games. To say the least I am not enamored with that. When a bowl game comes along it will be one of the many lesser, mostly downright insignificant bowl games not worth spending the travel money on. As for the future beyond CUSA, I surely don't see UD making FBS playoffs in my lifetime. Yes, the world must change for the program to be viable in the future, but if I don't really care for what comes with those changes then why should I pay for them.

I am also a long time STH (69 years young) and nothing, yes nothing, in your well reasoned opinion would dissuade me from buying tickets or contributing to UD.

As a very wise person once told me “Don’t look back, don’t look down.” I’m moving forward with the Hens.

[Info Hound]

We went for over a decade with "no extra games". Another year (or few) without one should be okay.
The likelihood of more interesting opponents at new travel destinations has me interested. Games in TN and KY offer some fine tourism opportunities.
Sadly, I'll never make it to Buies Creek!

[udsb97]

Mr Bobby- If you move forward with that attitude I think you're well versed to handle the football future. GoHens is not the best place to discuss the move. I'm 100% for it but if you are questioning exactly what it will be like then the window dressing you get on here does not change what's really in store. Our buds on here wouldn't change course if we moved to D3 and I do respect that. My concerns:

We do not have a head coach & staff who has proven anything other then they are better then the unacceptable before them.

We do not have a FCS team that has beaten anyone with much talent.

We will have a stadium , for the immediate future, that will be in the smallest 5 in our division.

A trip to Colorado might be a fun weekend but aside from the usual handful of STH's who would bus to Anchorage, the others will vanish when Kennesaw shows on a weekday. Maybe even catch the game on TV.

My hope is that the JMU & Liberty trail is a hoot and we can somehow pick up the pace behind them even though we have shown no signs of doing so.

We're all faced with some tough decisions and everyone entitled to their opinions but it's going to be a rough few years from where I sit ( or don't )

[Hens79]

Why is this a “tough decision”? You are either a Blue Hens football fan or not. Now if someone has health and age related issues, that is one thing. But to just walk away just because of …. some of the reasons some have expressed here … well ….

I used to defend the Hens fan base and understood those that left in 2009-2010 and didn’t come back during the lost decade. But if you stuck that out and walk now, just when UD entered the 21st century … Phew!

[Info Hound]

New Year's Day motto for some:

"Expect The Worst"



I seriously wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, Cheerful, Optimistic New Year!

Peace, and Go Hens!

[Hensfansince03]

Mr Bobby- If you move forward with that attitude I think you're well versed to handle the football future. GoHens is not the best place to discuss the move. I'm 100% for it but if you are questioning exactly what it will be like then the window dressing you get on here does not change what's really in store. Our buds on here wouldn't change course if we moved to D3 and I do respect that. My concerns:

We do not have a head coach & staff who has proven anything other then they are better then the unacceptable before them.

We do not have a FCS team that has beaten anyone with much talent.

We will have a stadium , for the immediate future, that will be in the smallest 5 in our division.

A trip to Colorado might be a fun weekend but aside from the usual handful of STH's who would bus to Anchorage, the others will vanish when Kennesaw shows on a weekday. Maybe even catch the game on TV.

My hope is that the JMU & Liberty trail is a hoot and we can somehow pick up the pace behind them even though we have shown no signs of doing so.

We're all faced with some tough decisions and everyone entitled to their opinions but it's going to be a rough few years from where I sit ( or don't )

Agree with these statements. Wish we would have done the WAC, stadium upgrades, and FBS move sometime between 2003 and 2011 when the program had more on the field accomplishment and momentum. KC at that time would have been a good fit for that kind of move.

To be competitive in Conf USA/FBS a lot more work needs to be done before we take the field in Colorado. We are very much behind where JMU was at this point in there move up process a few years ago. JMUs facilities, Coaching Staff, and on field talent were all FBS ready. We are a work in progress and a lot of questions remain.

To get there:

1. The additional facilities and stadium upgrades need to get moving. Our current facilities are acceptable for CONF USA, but underwhelming compared to most of FBS as a whole. The project was supposed to be officially announced this season with the move up, but it does not appear to have enough funding yet to get off the ground. I don't recall anything by UD being mentioned about it during the FBS announcement?

2. The coaching staff may need an upgrade. We hired an FCS coordinator as HC who now has to build an FBS program in his third year. I agree our current coaches are slightly better than what we had in the previous 2 regimes but still very unproven. Next year's lame duck season is important in assessing what direction the program is heading, if we continue to get slaughtered by teams like Elon and Nova in the 3rd year with the increase scholarships a serious assessment is going to need to be made as to if this is the coaching staff is the proper fit for what UD wants to accomplish at the FBS level.

3. Recruiting is going to be interesting to monitor. Our recruiting folks on this board do an amazing job of following the developments. As many have mentioned we really need to start to see the level of recruit on paper rise going forward. We are going to get an idea between now and spring with how well we do with the transfer portal.

I'm sure our President and AD are monitoring all of this. Exciting times for UD football. Whatever happens this is going to be much more exciting than what we have seen over the last decade.

[hensfan40yrs]

havent really recovered from the lost decade when the STHs (statewide) were shown they didnt matter, coincidence? dont think anybody said they are abandoning the Hens as fans, just think they can close in both ends of the stadium and it will still look 1/2 empty IMHO

[Cluck U]

Wait…”better than the unacceptable before them?”

The same unacceptable coaches that some expert vigorously defended…FOR YEARS…and told us that we fans had to be patient because that expert said he saw plenty of signs that demonstrated those “unacceptable” coaches were building a program the right way?



***breath***




Some experts should sit this one out.

Carty has been light years ahead of those “program builders.” Dude has an FCS championship ring (psssst…some coaches never got one at any time in their FCS careers).

Were we prepared for our last move up? Snagged a DII championship…then decided to move up to join those better teams that had left us behind.

Did we have the right coach to make the move? We had some initial success…made the playoffs our second year and then made it to a national championship game…but never saw one again for 20+ years.

9-2 (same number of wins Carty had in 2023)
9-3 - lost in the Quarterfinals (ditto)
12-2 - lost in the chipper (nice run)
4-7
8-3 (same number of wins Carty had his first year)
7-4
9-4 (= Carty wins in 2023)
5-6
7-5
7-4
6-5

^^^^^ That is not exactly an outstanding transition record…especially after the initial first three years.

Tubby had some more success later, but there can be no denying that Delaware football struggled a bit after making the move up. Somehow…we stuck with him.

But now we have some guys saying Carty isn’t the guy to take us to the next level…despite winning 8 and 9 wins (after being left with no OL and plenty of other holes to fill) and two playoff victories in his first two years.

Why don’t we give the guy a chance?

[Cluck U]

Making new fans should have always been the focus, and I’m glad to see it finally is. Scarlett was an easy scapegoat and everything got blamed on her, while nursing homes continued to cut into the STH base year after year. It was an old fan base when Flacco was here and has only gotten older since.

In the age of everyone’s data being for sale, buy a new resident list and market those folks first. Anyone that left over seat fees has either come back, died or is never coming back.

Scarlett deserves every bit of criticism she gets. She earned it. Harker, too.

Together, they sent UD football and fan experience into a death spiral. Business schools should make a case study of their actions…a complete implosion of a successful business…how to alienate your loyal customers and kill the golden goose.

[UDEL Fear the Bird]

Very excited for the FBS move and getting some higher level competition into Newark. I’m in my mid 30s and live in South Central PA but have not been to a football game in Newark since 2019. I had lost interest in UD football over the years with all of the changes in CAA membership which has led to a much lower quality of play. Now that we are going FBS I plan on getting football season tickets every year. Excited to see if we can get Navy and Temple to the Tub regularly for non conference games. I was also a bball season ticket holder in the past and plan on getting bball season tickets again now too.

[93BlueHen]

Very excited for the FBS move and getting some higher level competition into Newark. I’m in my mid 30s and live in South Central PA but have not been to a football game in Newark since 2019. I had lost interest in UD football over the years with all of the changes in CAA membership which has led to a much lower quality of play. Now that we are going FBS I plan on getting football season tickets every year. Excited to see if we can get Navy and Temple to the Tub regularly for non conference games. I was also a bball season ticket holder in the past and plan on getting bball season tickets again now too.

Getting into a regular home and home with Navy and having success will be a nice resume bullet for a later move to the AAC, eventual Mid-Atlantic/NE FBS conference, or higher.